The present invention relates to a vehicle speed control system.
In the field of vehicle speed control, there are a technology that prevents traffic accidents by providing support to vehicles cruising along a curve and in the neighborhood of the curve where accidents often occur and another technology that improves the safety and the comfort of the driver when driving support is provided, and these technologies are configured by utilizing automotive cruise control technology, such as adaptive cruise control (ACC).
There is yet another technology that determines a target speed based on information about the road ahead of the host vehicle, and executes a two-step deceleration that simulates the driver's operation in order to provide the driver with a driving comfort during deceleration before entering a curve section (JP-A-2004-142686).
Furthermore, there is a technology that, before entering a curve under the current running condition, estimates a load on the driver while passing through the curve based on the running condition of the host vehicle and the road shape ahead of the host vehicle, and if a deviation of the estimated driving load from a reference value is larger than a threshold value, issues a warning and implements deceleration control with appropriate timing, to thereby provide the driver with a driving comfort while running through a curve (JP-A-2005-309955).